Giancarlo opens door for prop firms to quote swaps

CFTC will grant no-action relief to non-banks that want to provide liquidity in cleared swaps

Prop firms sense an opportunity in a market that has been closed to them

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is clearing a path for proprietary trading firms seeking to act as market-makers in swaps – a business they have been essentially shut out of by the agency’s circuitous rules.

Christopher Giancarlo opened a door to prop firms, many of which are high-frequency trading firms, in a speech at DerivCon on Wednesday (February 27), taking direct aim at the ‘floor trader exemption rule’, which critics argue has long stopped non-banks from getting